F-35 LANDS IN SAN DIEGO FOR FIRST TIME

First appearance locally by one of new fighter jets based in Yuma designed to show progress of costly program

Number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets that will be stationed in Yuma

MIRAMAR 
An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet landed in San Diego for the first time Tuesday, stopping in a city saturated with military and defense industry representatives invested in keeping the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program aloft.

The supersonic stealth jet has been under development for more than a decade by lead contractor Lockheed Martin, as well as Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Pratt & Whitney. Three versions are being manufactured, one for the Air Force that lands conventionally, a tailhooker the Navy can use on aircraft carriers, and one the Marines can land vertically on amphibious ships or austere runways.

The Marines sent a vertically landing F-35B to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on a training flight, dispatching it for the first time to a base without permanent F-35 testing or operational support.

The jet also known as the Lightning II flew out of Yuma, where the Defense Department’s first squadron meant to eventually fly it in combat was established in November.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Scott, commanding officer of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, circled the Miramar flight line twice, did a touch and go off the runway, opened the weapons bay, then landed in the conventional manner.

The first San Diego stopover was a way to demonstrate that the long-awaited jet is making progress, despite delays and development problems that have helped boost the projected price from an initial $233 billion in today’s dollars to $391 billion.

“Some people call it the unicorn, but it’s here. It’s actually right here on the flight line today. We have Marines working on it everyday,” and pilots fly it three to five days a week, Scott said. “It is the future of Marine tactical aviation.”

The squadron, and the F-35 program overall, is still early into the walk, crawl, run process of preparing for combat, he conceded.

Fixes and testing for the jet’s complicated missions system software, helmet and night vision camera are ongoing, which means the Marine variant won’t be ready for action until at least mid-2015.

The Air Force is expected to begin operational flights in 2016 and the Navy in 2019.

The Corps has the most riding on the F-35 among the services because it has put all of its tactical aircraft development dollars into the pricey new plane, which is meant to replace three of its aircraft, the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, the AV-8B Harrier vertical landing jets, and eventually the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes.

The Corps established an operational squadron before testing and development was complete to speed the process, adding flight hours, squadron infrastructure and performance feedback necessary to make the jet combat-ready, Scott said.

“We learn quite a bit just in the day-to-day operations of this airplane. Both on the mission systems side and the aircraft maintaining side. Standing up that maintenance department … puts us a lot farther ahead once that software system drops and the flight clearance lets us deploy weapons.”

The squadron has about 180 of the 250 personnel it expects next year when fully staffed.

It received its ninth airplane Monday, two more are expected today, and all 16 slated for the squadron should arrive by October.

Their 10 aviators have flown more than 85 sorties and 100 hours, according to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered at Miramar.

The squadron was cleared in March to begin practicing the Marine model’s signature feature, its ability to make short takeoffs and land vertically. That feature effectively doubles the U.S. carrier fleet from 11 to 22, because the military can fly fighter jets off smaller amphibious ships.

Operating the vertical landing system is more automated than with the Harrier AV-8B jets it will one day replace, making it easier to fly, Scott said. But he is most impressed with the implications of its stealth technology.

“The ability to go into areas other aircraft would not have been able to go into, would not have been survivable, is extremely impressive. And its ability to fuse multiple sensors into a tactical display and process all of that … just the computing power in it alone is pretty amazing,” Scott said.

As the Marines ramp up operations, most flights now are conventional, but the squadron will probably be training with mostly short takeoffs and vertical landings by the fall.

In the interim, developing a maintenance program is their biggest task. The Yuma F-35 squadron is the first to have military personnel maintain the aircraft, instead of the contractors who care for the planes in testing squadrons.

That means the Marines responsible for the safety and integrity of the aircraft and its weapons systems also have to refine or create procedures for the operational squadrons to come.

“We are really advancing this program, in terms of taking care of the airplane because otherwise you can’t fly it,” Scott said. By learning how to do that safely and quickly, the Marines “are paving the way for future F-35 squadrons in all services.”